M. Massimi, Two kinds of exploratory models

March 14 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

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Please join us for our March colloquium, presented by Michela Massimi. The abstract is as follows:

I analyse the exploratory function of two main modelling practices: targetless fictional models and hypothetical perspectival models. In both cases, I argue, modelers invite us to imagine or conceive something about the target system, which is either known to be non-existent (fictional models) or just hypothetical (in perspectival models). I clarify the kind of imagining or conceiving involved in each modelling practice, and I show how each -in its own right -delivers important modal knowledge. I illustrate these two kinds of exploratory models with Maxwell’s ether model and SUSY models at the LHC.